Wrong Miss Florida crowned in voting mix-up

By Letitia Stein

TAMPA Fla. (Reuters) - Just a week after her coronation, the winner of the 2014 Miss Florida pageant was dethroned on Friday when organizers said they had crowned the wrong woman after a vote-count error.

Elizabeth Fechtel, a 20-year-old student at the University of Florida, won this year's pageant in front of nearly 2,000 spectators last Saturday in St. Petersburg, Florida.

But the ballot counter didn't see that one of the five judges had changed his mind, writing a new line up on the left-hand side of his ballot.

The true Miss Florida contest winner was Victoria Cowen, a 21-year-old student at Florida State University.

Meanwhile, in Delaware, beauty contest winner Amanda Longacre was stripped of her crown as Miss Delaware this week because she will turn 25 in October and pageant rules say contestants must be no older than 24 in 2014. [ID:nL2N0P81FS]

After the Florida mix-up came to light this week, pageant organizers sought an independent review, said Mary Sullivan, executive director of the Miss Florida pageant.

Sullivan delivered the bad news to Fechtel in person on Thursday evening, traveling to her home in Leesburg, Florida.

"Our organization had to do the right thing, and the right thing is to crown the young woman that was intended to be crowned," Sullivan said.

Sullivan was not aware of another vote count error of this nature, although pageant winners have been disqualified for other reasons, she said.

Fechtel is now the runner-up, and Cowen will compete in September's Miss America contest. The two women are friends, Sullivan said, which made the conversations even harder.

"We would have been very proud either way because they are so exceptional," Sullivan said. "Once we were made aware of it, we couldn't stand by and just not do anything."

The Florida pageant involved in the mix-up is part of the "Miss America" series, distinct from a separate Florida contest for the "Miss USA" title.

Neither woman could immediately be reached on Friday.

(Reporting by Letitia Stein; Editing by Barbara Goldberg)

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Billboards give wrong date for Detroit election

DETROIT (AP) — Billboards promoting Detroit's upcoming general election offered up some erroneous information about when to go to the polls.

The Detroit Free Press reports (http://on.freep.com/14J4HEc ) that many of the 14 billboards gave a September date for the election. The vote will actually take place Nov. 5.

City Clerk Janice Winfrey says the billboards were updated Saturday with information about the general election, and she calls the September date "a mistake" by the business that handles the billboards.

Winfrey says she noticed the error and was angry. Winfrey says she was told all the billboards would be fixed by Tuesday.

The November election includes races for Detroit mayor and city council.

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Information from: Detroit Free Press, http://www.freep.com

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Detroit advertised wrong date for upcoming election on billboards

DETROIT (Reuters) - Renting billboards to tout Detroit's upcoming election was a good idea until the wrong date was put on 14 of them over this past weekend, city officials said.

Detroit, which has filed for the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, chooses a new mayor in the next general election, on November 5. But billboards that the City of Detroit commissioned read that the election would take place on September 2.

The billboards were initially put up to pitch a previous election. Detroit City Clerk Janet Winfrey said on Tuesday that the local billboard company on Saturday updated the signs to highlight the general election, but with the erroneous September date.

Winfrey, who as city clerk also heads the Detroit Department of Elections, said her department approved samples of the initial billboards but did not see samples of the updated ones. The sign company, International Outdoor Inc based in suburban Detroit, was given the correct date from the elections office, Winfrey said.

"Everybody makes mistakes," Winfrey said on Tuesday, "Every time there is a human element involved, there is a chance of a mistake. Newspapers put out corrections all the time."

The city clerk said Tuesday afternoon that by the end of the day all of the billboards would have the correct information showing.

She remains happy with the billboard company, which charged the city for 11 of the signs, and threw in three free ones as an incentive. Winfrey said that after the mistake, "they threw in two more freebies," which she said would increase the number of billboards, with the correct information, to 16 in the city.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall; Editing by Greg McCune and Leslie Gevirtz)

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Texas contractor razes house, but the wrong one

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A demolition company has mistakenly torn down a three-bedroom home in North Texas rather than the condemned building next door.

David Underwood and his wife placed their Fort Worth house on the market with the intention of moving into the retreat they purchased near the shores of Lake Worth. The lakeside land has been in the family for decades and Underwood bought it from an aunt earlier this year.

But when they stopped by to mow the lawn Saturday, they found the home was gone. A slab of foundation remains.

Fort Worth hired the demolition company to raze the condemned building, and was billed more than $6,000 for the work.

The condemned structure remains standing.

Underwood is seeking a settlement from the city. A city spokesman says officials are investigating.

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You’re doing it wrong: Only 5 percent wash hands the right way, study says

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Gold extended losses into a second session on Friday as strong U.S. data stoked uncertainty over the outlook for the Federal Reserve's massive bond-buying stimulus. A pull back in bond purchases would hurt gold, seen as a hedge against inflation. Bullion, down 17 percent for the year, has been hit by investor outflows in gold exchange traded funds and signs of softening demand in key buyers India and China. "There is uncertainty about the Fed tapering," said Brian Lan, managing director of Singapore-based dealer GoldSilver Central Pte Ltd. ...

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